NASA to grab sample from asteroid with tiny chance of hitting Earth

NASA has picked out four likely landing sites for a spacecraft orbiting asteroid Bennu, a third-of-a-mile-wide space rock that has a distant chance of hitting Earth in 2066.

Since its arrival last December, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has mapped the entire asteroid to identify a landing site where it can collect a sample.

But the rocky surface of Bennu has made the process more difficult.

The asteroid’s boulder-filled exterior has made it complicated to pick out safe areas containing sample-able material, which must be fine enough – less than 1 inch in diameter – for the spacecraft’s sampling mechanism to ingest it.